Iran continues to export its oil despite last week’s cancellation of the U.S. waiver of its oil sales, Iranian Oil Minister, Mohsen Paknejad, said on Tuesday, as Tehran remains defiant and determined to control the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed hostilities and the reinstated U.S. naval blockade.
“Iran’s oil exports are continuing without interruption despite the termination of a 60-day exemption tied to US sanctions,” Shana, the news service of Iran’s Oil Ministry, quoted the oil minister as saying.
Iran’s Oil Ministry “has spent years building mechanisms designed to neutralize US sanctions and has kept those systems intact,” Paknejad added.
Iran didn’t dismantle or alter its export strategy even while the 60-day exemption – which actually lasted just three weeks – was in effect, according to the minister.
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Due to these export mechanisms remaining in place, “Iran’s oil exports will continue at the same pace as before,” Paknejad was further quoted as saying.
The Iranian official also criticized the U.S. for rescinding the waiver, accusing the United States of reneging on its commitments. Washington violated Article 10 of the agreement governing the 60-day waivers, the minister said.
This week, the mid-June agreement appears all but void after the latest escalation in the region, with Iranian attacks on tankers, U.S. strikes on Iran, Tehran’s retaliation against U.S. allies in the region, and the U.S. reinstating the naval blockade to stop Iranian oil exports.
Iran is estimated to have sneaked supertankers with a total of 12 million barrels of crude oil in the week between the end of the U.S. waiver on July 7 and July 14, when the U.S. reinstated the blockade on Iranian ports and oil cargoes.
Iran will continue its pre-war tactic to ship crude to Chinese independent refiners, analysts say.
Earlier this week, nine sanctioned Iranian tankers went dark off Malaysia, carrying crude estimated by Vortexa at $989 million, maritime intelligence firm Windward said. These cargoes are predominantly bound for Shandong teapot refineries at Dongjiakou, “consistent with the established Iran-to-Malaysian-blend-to-China laundering route,” Windward added.
By Charle Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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